Horry For 3!
12-07-2005, 02:10 AM
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/wbc/article.jsp?content=120505_b
MLB announces managers, players committed to tournament
By Barry M. Bloom/MLB.com
DALLAS -- Major League Baseball brought its "We are the World" tour to the annual Winter Meetings on Monday, putting a face on the World Baseball Classic for the first time since the inaugural tournament was announced this past July.
Among the 177 Major League players announced for many of the 16 teams competing in the 18-day tournament are the best and the brightest of this era.
"This takes the sport to another dimension," Commissioner Bud Selig said Monday about a tournament that is expected to be staged again in 2009 and then every four years thereafter. "It's going to be so big because this is going to take the whole sport to heights that we can't even imagine today."
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter, Dontrelle Willis, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Lee, Javier Vazquez, Ivan Rodriguez and Ichiro Suzuki, plus both of this year's league MVPs -- Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriquez -- have already committed to play in the games if selected by their respective teams. Sixteen countries or territories are committed to participate in the event, which will begin on March 3 in Japan's Tokyo Dome and end with an inaugural champion crowned on March 20 in San Diego's PETCO Park.
In between, venues like Scottsdale Stadium and Chase Field in Arizona, Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico, Cracker Jack Stadium at Disney Wide World of Sports in the Orlando, Fla., area and Angel Stadium in Anaheim will host either first- or second-round games. Or in San Juan's case, both.
Former Toronto skipper Buck Martinez will manage the United States team and he'll have Davey Johnson, who just led Team USA to a five-game sweep in its Olympic pre-qualifying tournament last month at Phoenix, as his bench coach. Each team is limited to five in-uniform coaches, and on the U.S. team, Johnson will be joined by Ken Griffey Sr. (first base), Marcel Lachemann (pitching) and Reggie Smith (hitting). Still undecided is the third base coach. Rick Eckstein, who was on the recent Olympic staff, will help in the bullpen but probably won't be in uniform.
"It's a very experienced staff," Martinez said. "A lot of Major League experience and name recognition. It's something that we've put together a staff that will be able to put together a 30-man roster that could be as good as any roster ever assembled."
The landmark tournament field includes Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Chinese Taipei, the United States and Venezuela. Cuba is the only country that hasn't formally accepted its invitation, although long-time president Fidel Castro has made statements during the past week indicating that the baseball-rich Cubans will be there.
"We'd like to accommodate him," said Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer. "We have had some discussions with the Cubans that make us feel very, very confident that they will play. I do not think that is a serious impediment to the tournament at this point. I believe the Cubans will play, but give us some more time to work on that particular aspect."
Thirteen of the 16 teams announced their managers with nine of them having at least one game of Major League experience --- Ernie Whitt (Canada), Jim Lefebvre (China), Manny Acta (Dominican Republic), Paquin Estrada (Mexico), Robert Eenhoorn (The Netherlands), Roberto Kelly (Panama), Jose Oquendo (Puerto Rico), Martinez (U.S.) and Luis Sojo (Venezuela).
The Japanese will be skippered by Sadaharu Oh, the world's all-time king with 868 career home runs. The Australians will be managed by Jon Deeble, who pitched 16 years for their national team. In-Sik Kim led the Koreans during several of their Olympic bids. And Hua-Wei Lin was skipper of the Chinese Taipei squad that won a bronze medal when that country hosted the 2002 International Baseball Federation (IBAF) World Cup.
Managers for Italy, Cuba and South Africa are still to be announced. And rosters for the four Asian teams are expected to be released later in the week.
A maximum 60-man roster for each nation must be submitted by Jan. 17, and that point, all players will begin to be drug tested under the auspices of Olympic-type penalties -- two years of banishment from international play for a first offense. The tournament drug testing is mutually exclusive from the new testing program agreed upon last month by MLB and the players association, Orza said. Thus, any player testing positive during the event will not be penalized next season by MLB.
Each team's 30-man roster must be finalized 24 hours prior to the start of the tournament.
Those final rosters must include a minimum of 13 pitchers and three catchers. MLB has committed to 60 percent of the players having either a Major League or Minor League contract. The breakdown would be no more than 10 players on the 25-man roster of each MLB team and four more from the expanded 40-man rosters, said Paul Archey, MLB's vice president of international baseball operations, who added that some of the competing teams will have rosters filled entirely with Major Leaguers.
All the players announced on Monday were blessed by the players association and MLB, who have collectively spent months in the initial culling process.
The U.S. roster, now projected at 45 Major League players, is stocked with a plethora of stars that span the ages. It goes from Clemens, Griffey and Bonds at one end of the spectrum to Eric Chavez, Brad Lidge and Joe Mauer on the other.
Three players -- Alex Rodriguez, Mike Piazza and Marco Scutaro -- have the opportunity to select between two countries because of their family heritage. A-Rod can choose between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, Piazza between the U.S. and Italy and Scutaro between Italy and Venezuela.
Orza said that Piazza had chosen Italy, Scutaro was leaning toward Venezuela and that discussions with Rodriguez were still ongoing.
"Basically what we've done is we've adopted the Olympic rule, which is essentially if you can get a passport, you can play for the country that you can get the passport from," Orza said.
The tournament will begin on March 3 with first-round played at four sites: Pool A, consisting of Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and China, will meet at the Tokyo Dome, March 3-6, with the other three pools all on March 9-11. Pool B, featuring the U.S, Canada, Mexico and South Africa, will play at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Scottsdale Stadium, Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants; Pool C is Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama and the Netherlands, and will play at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, and Pool D, featuring the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia and Italy, will play at the spring home of the Atlanta Braves near Orlando.
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the second round, which takes place March 13-15 back at Hiram Bithorn Stadium and at Angel Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Angels. Again the top two teams in the four-team second-round brackets will each move on to the semifinals and finals to be held at the home of the San Diego Padres on March 18-20.
Fans can follow all of the games live via MLB.com.
Tickets go on sale Dec. 10 for games in Puerto Rico and Dec. 12 for games in the United States, while the dates for ticket sales in Japan are still to be determined. For more information, go to www.worldbaseballclassic.com.
The tournament will run concurrently with Major League Baseball's Spring Training in Arizona and Florida and Nippon Professional Baseball's camps in Japan.
Strict pitch counts will be incorporated in the tournament games and there will be suggested limitations on the use of position players, conforming to the usual playing time expended by most Major Leaguers during Spring Training. But those rules are still to be determined, Archey said.
"I don't see how any pitcher can go more than two innings that time of the year," Martinez said.
No team can play more than eight games in the tournament and only the two that go to the championship game will do that. In the first two rounds, each team plays three games per round with the two teams having the best records surviving to play another day.
Only the semifinals and finals are single-elimination games.
Thus, eight of the 16 teams will be eliminated after the first round with all the participating Major League players returning immediately to their respective camps.
"It's going to be a showcase for baseball that we've never seen before," Martinez said.
MLB announces managers, players committed to tournament
By Barry M. Bloom/MLB.com
DALLAS -- Major League Baseball brought its "We are the World" tour to the annual Winter Meetings on Monday, putting a face on the World Baseball Classic for the first time since the inaugural tournament was announced this past July.
Among the 177 Major League players announced for many of the 16 teams competing in the 18-day tournament are the best and the brightest of this era.
"This takes the sport to another dimension," Commissioner Bud Selig said Monday about a tournament that is expected to be staged again in 2009 and then every four years thereafter. "It's going to be so big because this is going to take the whole sport to heights that we can't even imagine today."
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Derek Jeter, Dontrelle Willis, Carlos Delgado, Carlos Lee, Javier Vazquez, Ivan Rodriguez and Ichiro Suzuki, plus both of this year's league MVPs -- Albert Pujols and Alex Rodriquez -- have already committed to play in the games if selected by their respective teams. Sixteen countries or territories are committed to participate in the event, which will begin on March 3 in Japan's Tokyo Dome and end with an inaugural champion crowned on March 20 in San Diego's PETCO Park.
In between, venues like Scottsdale Stadium and Chase Field in Arizona, Hiram Bithorn Stadium in Puerto Rico, Cracker Jack Stadium at Disney Wide World of Sports in the Orlando, Fla., area and Angel Stadium in Anaheim will host either first- or second-round games. Or in San Juan's case, both.
Former Toronto skipper Buck Martinez will manage the United States team and he'll have Davey Johnson, who just led Team USA to a five-game sweep in its Olympic pre-qualifying tournament last month at Phoenix, as his bench coach. Each team is limited to five in-uniform coaches, and on the U.S. team, Johnson will be joined by Ken Griffey Sr. (first base), Marcel Lachemann (pitching) and Reggie Smith (hitting). Still undecided is the third base coach. Rick Eckstein, who was on the recent Olympic staff, will help in the bullpen but probably won't be in uniform.
"It's a very experienced staff," Martinez said. "A lot of Major League experience and name recognition. It's something that we've put together a staff that will be able to put together a 30-man roster that could be as good as any roster ever assembled."
The landmark tournament field includes Australia, Canada, China, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Italy, the Netherlands, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Chinese Taipei, the United States and Venezuela. Cuba is the only country that hasn't formally accepted its invitation, although long-time president Fidel Castro has made statements during the past week indicating that the baseball-rich Cubans will be there.
"We'd like to accommodate him," said Gene Orza, the union's chief operating officer. "We have had some discussions with the Cubans that make us feel very, very confident that they will play. I do not think that is a serious impediment to the tournament at this point. I believe the Cubans will play, but give us some more time to work on that particular aspect."
Thirteen of the 16 teams announced their managers with nine of them having at least one game of Major League experience --- Ernie Whitt (Canada), Jim Lefebvre (China), Manny Acta (Dominican Republic), Paquin Estrada (Mexico), Robert Eenhoorn (The Netherlands), Roberto Kelly (Panama), Jose Oquendo (Puerto Rico), Martinez (U.S.) and Luis Sojo (Venezuela).
The Japanese will be skippered by Sadaharu Oh, the world's all-time king with 868 career home runs. The Australians will be managed by Jon Deeble, who pitched 16 years for their national team. In-Sik Kim led the Koreans during several of their Olympic bids. And Hua-Wei Lin was skipper of the Chinese Taipei squad that won a bronze medal when that country hosted the 2002 International Baseball Federation (IBAF) World Cup.
Managers for Italy, Cuba and South Africa are still to be announced. And rosters for the four Asian teams are expected to be released later in the week.
A maximum 60-man roster for each nation must be submitted by Jan. 17, and that point, all players will begin to be drug tested under the auspices of Olympic-type penalties -- two years of banishment from international play for a first offense. The tournament drug testing is mutually exclusive from the new testing program agreed upon last month by MLB and the players association, Orza said. Thus, any player testing positive during the event will not be penalized next season by MLB.
Each team's 30-man roster must be finalized 24 hours prior to the start of the tournament.
Those final rosters must include a minimum of 13 pitchers and three catchers. MLB has committed to 60 percent of the players having either a Major League or Minor League contract. The breakdown would be no more than 10 players on the 25-man roster of each MLB team and four more from the expanded 40-man rosters, said Paul Archey, MLB's vice president of international baseball operations, who added that some of the competing teams will have rosters filled entirely with Major Leaguers.
All the players announced on Monday were blessed by the players association and MLB, who have collectively spent months in the initial culling process.
The U.S. roster, now projected at 45 Major League players, is stocked with a plethora of stars that span the ages. It goes from Clemens, Griffey and Bonds at one end of the spectrum to Eric Chavez, Brad Lidge and Joe Mauer on the other.
Three players -- Alex Rodriguez, Mike Piazza and Marco Scutaro -- have the opportunity to select between two countries because of their family heritage. A-Rod can choose between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic, Piazza between the U.S. and Italy and Scutaro between Italy and Venezuela.
Orza said that Piazza had chosen Italy, Scutaro was leaning toward Venezuela and that discussions with Rodriguez were still ongoing.
"Basically what we've done is we've adopted the Olympic rule, which is essentially if you can get a passport, you can play for the country that you can get the passport from," Orza said.
The tournament will begin on March 3 with first-round played at four sites: Pool A, consisting of Japan, Korea, Chinese Taipei and China, will meet at the Tokyo Dome, March 3-6, with the other three pools all on March 9-11. Pool B, featuring the U.S, Canada, Mexico and South Africa, will play at Chase Field, home of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and Scottsdale Stadium, Spring Training home of the San Francisco Giants; Pool C is Puerto Rico, Cuba, Panama and the Netherlands, and will play at Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan, and Pool D, featuring the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia and Italy, will play at the spring home of the Atlanta Braves near Orlando.
The top two teams from each pool will advance to the second round, which takes place March 13-15 back at Hiram Bithorn Stadium and at Angel Stadium, the home of the Los Angeles Angels. Again the top two teams in the four-team second-round brackets will each move on to the semifinals and finals to be held at the home of the San Diego Padres on March 18-20.
Fans can follow all of the games live via MLB.com.
Tickets go on sale Dec. 10 for games in Puerto Rico and Dec. 12 for games in the United States, while the dates for ticket sales in Japan are still to be determined. For more information, go to www.worldbaseballclassic.com.
The tournament will run concurrently with Major League Baseball's Spring Training in Arizona and Florida and Nippon Professional Baseball's camps in Japan.
Strict pitch counts will be incorporated in the tournament games and there will be suggested limitations on the use of position players, conforming to the usual playing time expended by most Major Leaguers during Spring Training. But those rules are still to be determined, Archey said.
"I don't see how any pitcher can go more than two innings that time of the year," Martinez said.
No team can play more than eight games in the tournament and only the two that go to the championship game will do that. In the first two rounds, each team plays three games per round with the two teams having the best records surviving to play another day.
Only the semifinals and finals are single-elimination games.
Thus, eight of the 16 teams will be eliminated after the first round with all the participating Major League players returning immediately to their respective camps.
"It's going to be a showcase for baseball that we've never seen before," Martinez said.